Hello room, was just wondering if there was anyone in here that had tried to make platts, or braiding (its called something like that), all my attempts have failed :( .. Im using 3ds max , but that doesnt matter, what I really want is a realistic method for creation.. Best wishes, Barrie. Thanx in advance for any help.

braids are essentially spiral forms aren't they? never tried this but how about creating two helixes, stretch them through the long axis, rotate one through the long axis, then put them together? Dunno if 3DS Max has helix primitives or a helix making routine, but plenty of other apps do

Attached Link: http://www.dreamweaverbraiding.com/Braiding_Tips.htm

There are hundreds of braid variations so here's some kind of vague help :-) Even the most basic braids have a minimum of 3 strands which take it in turns to be wrapped around the other two, so you would need to start with at least 3 strands. Obviously it would depend on which kinds of braids you are trying to make. Some are made of pretwisted sections of hair, so you would need to begin with twisted sections. Some are made of braided braids, or twisted braids with strings of tiny fake pearls in etc... You get the idea :-) At their simplest, they consist of bringing one strand of hair to the top (or bottom) of the plait and wrapping it over the previous two, each of the strands taking it in turn to cross over the other two. Each time you lift the strand which is on the outside on the opposite side to the one used the previous time Some can contain dozens of separate strands so I would suggest searching the web for sites on braiding (there are quite a few. I have included one of my favourites as a starting point. It gives reasonable descriptions of how to create reasonable braids IRL although the pictures are small) and deciding which type of braid you are trying to recreate. My Probably the long way to do it, but it worked for me Way to Make a Braided hairstyle. For the beginning of the hair style (the bit that covers your scalp you just use over lapping strands of the appropriate thickness, flat to the head with a slightly curved upperside and squish the end that gets covered up. (Because the hair gets squished when you braid it for real. It is pulled very tight to hold it in place) I apply transparency maps to them because this is the hair where it joins the scalp and you'd be there forever modelling individual hairs. Obviously if it starts with multiple braids, make one then copy and bend a little to fit around the head. Then, depending on how your main hair turns into a braid (this may be covered up if there is a plait running across the back of the scalp or the hair is collected into a ponytail at that point or whatever) you make the appropriately shaped piece. For the long braided bit. (which would need to be moveable if you intend to animate or just pose it so you would rig it like a snake or any other rope) If you create one correct section of your braid, you should be able to mirror it (to make identical ends) then paste additional copies on to get the required length. Don't forget, if the style is one with a ribbon or whatever woven into it to add it at this point Putting the end on your braid is usually easy as there is often a tie (either a ribbon or a section of hair wrapped around0 followed by a simple end like a ponytail. I get a magnet out and tweak bits to make it not look completely uniform all the way down. It might sound stupid, but it helps if you can recreate a braid in real life. If you don't have a patient and willing victim I would suggest using three (or however many strands your braid will have) scarves fixed together at the start point with an elastic band. I'm not sure if any of that is any help (I have rather long hair so I just look at my own for reference after getting someone to braid it for me) so I'll just shut up now:-) Hopefully at least the link will help :-) Shanna :-)

Hi, someone else said helixes, but I dont think they fit, at least not with 3 strands, 2 are easy I can just use a twist modifier (in 3ds) to twist 2 tubes around x degrees.. I guess I should of pointed out I need 3 strand braids, Ive actually made them up with some string, and the individual threads dont seem to be helical at all.. oops, forgot to say that 3ds does have helix primative spline.. but I gues syou guessed that :).. helical is fine for 2 , but not 3 :( it seems

You need an elliptical section flattened each time it is crossed by another section. It will bulge out slightly between each time it gets squished. Shanna :-)

That's a hard one. Each component in a braid follows a loosely helical path, but not precisely, and the `helix' is also flattened and irregular in thickness. It might be easier to use a displacement map texture on a tapering cylinder. To model it and have it look real would use an awful lot of polygons. m.

Shanna, wow... thanks for all the info, I didnt know there was so much to it.. I think I am just trying to make a "basic 3 - strand" (thanx for the excelent link BTW). As far as actually modeling proper hair goes, thats jumping the gun a bit for me , but I'll keep your tips as reference (in case i finally solve ... ) I just really need the no thrills way of getting my 3 tubes to mesh properly through one cycle (which presumably I can then just copy and paste , it seems pretty much periodic)... I did tried making the braid with 3 wires stuck together, it was easy :) .. lol .. the modeling is still confusing me though, I think its the restrictions of modeling apps more than anything else, if you could in real time , tug and pull on flexible tubes and have them do collision detection and not intersect each other then I could prob do it, but all I have is the Twist Modifier :( Thanks for all the info .. Barrie.

Shanna (post 5) thats jumping the gun a bit again :) ..

Pearce, yes its horrible, Ive wasted about 8 hours on this problem.. the thing is Im sure theres a simple maths formula for it so there must be a simple model ( in my picture i started with 2 tubes brown and white, twisted them by 180 degrees as a pair then split them apart and played, with mirroring rotating on different axis... lol ,, i think itd take me 1000 yrs to brute force the solution) Although modeling hair was the intention originally hair is a side issue now :) however it'd be nice for UV mapping to start off with 3 tubes each strand could be individually coloured and textured (bumps and transparency) easily. I'm realy just looking for one cycle of the pattern on 3 tubes. (the fact that i could eventually be hair is a side issue at the moment) .. Best wishes. Barrie.

I'm off to bed, I appreciate all your help.. I think I'll leave it as a bad idea for now though so dont worry about it. Best wishes. Barrie.

Just wanted to update anyone that was interested: ODeathOfLife , put me out of my mysery in the 3DS form heres a crosslink to the post I hope. http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=2104&Form.ShowMessage=1543681 Best wishes, Barrie. Thanks

did you check the program knotmaker?

no, I didn't although I was thinking about it, from the pictures the only 3 thread braid has double lines, but I may download to check it out, thanks for the tip. Barrie. (the solution that I have is great anyhow)

Hey so basically what you want to do is create your spline, with 9 points as shown in the side view and then move the verts to an 'infinity' shape in the top view port. Once that is done you can make the verts curved or beizered then clone it 2 times the 1st one moves down to 1/3 the main one and the 2nd one move it down 2/3 of the 1st one and there is your braid.

3d'd

Hey, you helped me already.. LOL .. are you loosing your brain cells , lol just kidding. Best wishes Barrie. :)

No not loosing any, just saw it here and decided to post the knowledge for everyone LOL. Yours looks great, I can see that you took more time on yours then I did on mine LOL.

after creating the splines and copying and moving them, I attached them together so they were just one long spline (3 of them) I wish I would of waited now for your concise method downloading all those lightwave pictures took forever :( so how do you make one with 4 strands then ? :) just kidding Best wishes (and thanks) Barrie.